


What do You Say

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Love Letters, M/M, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25079770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Dimitri writes Dedue a letter to help with his self esteem. And then he writes a few dozen more.Aka: Dimitri struggles.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	What do You Say

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)

Dimitri usually didn’t want to kill Sylvain. At least, not as much as Ingrid and Felix usually wanted to. Sure, he would frustrate him sometimes, but the “hate” was never too serious.   
Not until now.   
“I think I’ve been going about this the wrong way, Your Royalness. If I want you to start dating someone, I need to know who your type is. Do ya have a crush on anyone?” Dimitri almost spat out his drink. He glanced nervously towards Dedue, who was sitting next to him (which was entirely coincidental and in no way related to the question that was asked) and was definitely not disappointed that Dedue didn’t look back at him.  
“I um, well-”  
“Well, I already know who you have a crush on, but I wanna, y’ know, clarify it first. Unless the person you like is in the room, and you want to save face.” Sylvain cocked his eyebrow in a direction that looked suspiciously like it was towards Dedue. Dimitri’s face burned up.  
“Well, I-um-”  
“Sylvain!” Ingrid miraculously appeared behind Sylvain and hit him in the head with her book.   
“You shouldn’t be asking Your Highness questions like that, you idiot!”  
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry! Geez, you almost killed me-”  
“Don’t joke about dying.”  
“Okay, I get it!” Dimitri couldn’t help but chuckle at his friends and was thrilled when Sylvain didn’t question him anymore about who he had a “crush” on for the rest of breakfast. Dimitri was able to keep his emotions in check for most of his meal, though he couldn’t help but feel his anger grow when he saw Ingrid constantly giving Dedue wary stares.   
He was about to snap at her before Sylvain noticed Cyril staring blankly at a piece of paper and beckoned him to their table.  
“Hey, Cyril, what’s up?” Cyril didn’t seem to be 100% aware of what he was doing and almost bumped into the table. Sylvain wasted no time in snatching the paper from Cyril’s hand and scanning it over.   
“Wow, a love letter? Didn’t know you had girls after you, man.” Dimitri leaned over to try and read the letter, while Cyril stared at Sylvain with a very confused look on his face.  
“That’s a love letter?” Sylvain made a face.  
“Yeah...did you even read it?”  
“Well, I was trying to, but I never learned-”  
“This letter’s pretty well written, who gave it to you, Cyril?” Sylvain asked. Dimitri rolled his eyes. It wasn’t uncharacteristic of him to be constantly chasing after girls.  
“Dunno. Professor gave it to me, and said it was from someone.” Sylvain sighed.  
“That’s a shame, I wanted to see if I could make whoever gave you this letter fall for me instead.” Sylvain leaned forward in his seat and winked at Dimitri.  
“Y’know, a bunch of people have been giving out love letters lately, Your Highness-” Dimitri felt his face getting hotter, what was Sylvain up to now? “maybe you could give one to De-”  
“Anyways,” Ingrid interrupted, “I’m not exactly interested in love letters right now, so I’m leaving. Do you want to spar with me, Your Highness?” Dimitri, still blushing from what Sylvain had said, nodded and started getting up to follow Ingrid, looked back (longingly, but he wasn’t going to admit that) at Dedue.  
“What are you going to do now, Dedue?” Dedue looked up at him with a somewhat curious gaze, and Dimitri would be lying if he said his heart didn’t skip a few beats.  
“I suppose I’ll go take care of the flowers in the greenhouse if you don’t mind, Your Highness,” He flinched at the use of his formal title, and couldn’t help but question why he was so opposed to Dedue talking to him in such a formal way, and not when Ingrid and Sylvain would constantly call him “Your Highness.”   
“Yes, if that is what you want the most, then I would be fine with you going to the greenhouse.” Dedue, who seemed distracted by something, stared past him.  
“Ingrid has already left for the training grounds, Your Highness.” Dimitri turned around, and sure enough, Ingrid was far ahead of him.  
“Oh, I shouldn’t have made her wait...my apologies, Dedue. I’ll see you soon!” He smiled, and to Dimitri’s delight, Dedue smiled back at him. He even chuckled a bit.   
“I will see you soon as well, Dimitri.” Okay, maybe he imagined the “Dimitri” part, but nonetheless, his heart still fluttered a bit.   
Dimitri, trying to cover up his blush, started to run after Ingrid.  
You know, a bunch of people have been giving out love letters lately, Your Highness.  
Would Dedue like a love letter?  
Dimitri pushed the thought out of his mind, and instead focused all of his thoughts on finding Ingrid.  
“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting, Ingrid. Shall we start?”

Dimitri had nothing to do. That’s why he did it. No other reason. That’s definitely, probably the reason why he wrote a 3-page love letter to his vassal at 4:00 am in the morning. Not only did he have nothing to do, but the ghosts couldn’t seem to leave him alone that night. So he stayed up. He tried to do his homework, he really did, but he kept thinking about what Sylvain said.  
You know, a bunch of people have been giving out love letters lately, Your Highness.  
Dedue would like a love letter, wouldn’t he? He likes to read. He likes meaningful things, like flowers and...cooking, right? Were those things really meaningful, though? Well, they were meaningful to Dedue. They made him happy. Maybe...maybe a letter could make him happy too. Maybe, if he knew that someone really cared about him, then he would be more confident. Then maybe...he’d call him by his real name…  
That was enough for Dimitri. He felt guilty, trying to trick Dedue into thinking that someone was in love with him when that wasn’t the case.  
Or was it the case?  
Was Dimitri really doing this to satisfy his own selfish desires? The ghosts were quiet now, but he could already hear them laugh at him.   
He would just have to pretend (and only pretend, nothing more) that he was in love with Dedue. Just one letter. That’s all. Only one letter.   
Apparently, it wasn’t too hard for Dimitri to pretend that he was in love with Dedue.  
What do you say when you love someone? He asked himself.   
Ideas about all of his good features, all of the wonderful things about Dedue, came easily to him. He didn’t think much of it. Well, he tried not to think much of it.   
He wrote 3 pages of heartfelt thoughts, and more ideas for an infinite amount of letters. Dimitri snuck out of his room and slid it under Dedue’s door.

Sylvain kept messing things up.  
“C’mon Dedue, let me see it. Three whole pages! Geez...”  
Oh no. Sylvain found out somehow.  
“D-Dedue!” Dimitri exclaimed, full of nerves. What if he found out?   
“What are you looking at? Why is Sylvain here?” the sentence came out of his mouth a bit more accusingly than he intended.   
“Uh, I just wanted to see what Dedue was reading. And guess what, Dimitri?” Dimitri turned to look at Dedue, and was sad (and slightly delighted) to see that Dedue was blushing a dark red.   
“It’s not my place to know, it’s his business.” Dedue hurriedly nodded in agreement. Sylvain didn’t notice (or didn’t care).  
“HEY GUYS,” the imbecile shouted, “CHECK OUT WHAT DEDUE’S GOT!”

By the end of the day, the whole school knew.  
Dimitri had written the letters thinking that no one would find out about him. He was scared. What would people say? He was right to be scared, he had disciplined more gossipers that day than he could count. There was speculation on who wrote the letter, of course. Some people thought it was Ashe, which disappointed him for some reason. He even heard that people thought that Dimitri was the one who had written the letter, until people suspected Sylvain. Sylvain acted as if he was proud to be the topic of this particular gossip, and didn’t exactly answer when people asked him if we wrote the letter. This rumor was dispelled soon after Hilda forced him to compare his handwriting to the one on the 3-page letter.   
Dedue seemed to think it was his fault.  
“I shouldn’t have let Sylvain take the letter. I shouldn’t have even brought the letter outside, I should have-”  
“It’s not your fault, Dedue,” Dimitri reassured him. It’s my fault. “It’s Sylvain’s fault. He’s the one that told everyone.” Dedue stayed silent for a minute.   
“I-I first read it when I was in my room, but I couldn’t believe it…”  
“I understand, Dedue.”  
“Your Highness, can I confess something to you?”  
Dimitri’s heart skipped a beat.   
“Have you heard what people have been saying...about the letter being a prank? I think they’re right.” Dimitri’s heart fell.   
“W-What do you mean, Dedue?”  
“No one would write such a letter to me-”  
“What about Ashe!” Dimitri exclaimed, feeling desperate. “He seems to like you, right?”  
Dedue’s face fell for some reason.   
“I...suppose so. Maybe.”  
He looked disappointed. But that couldn’t be right. There was no reason for him to be disappointed. Ashe was very nice-  
Or maybe Dimitri was the one who was disappointed?  
“Dedue, I’m sure there will be more letters. Then you will see that the letter was genuine, and it meant something important to whoever wrote it. I swear that to you.”  
Dedue looked at him, and his expression looked slightly hopeful.   
Maybe Dimitri was in love with him.  
He wrote another letter that night. It wasn’t that hard, he just had to piece all of his stray thoughts together, and when he thought about Dedue, the ghosts would leave him alone, so they would never interrupt him. A new letter slipped under Dedue’s door. He had learned from his mistake and not brought the letter out of his dorm, though he excitedly told Dimitri about it later that day. He made a mistake when Sylvain pressured him about whether or not he had gotten a new letter a few days later.  
“C’mon Dedue, it’s nothing to be ashamed of! You can tell us!” Dedue swallowed.   
“Well...I did get a new letter…” The whole table suddenly became very chaotic. Everyone was yelling about something, whether it be for Dedue to show them the letter, or for him to tell them who had sent them. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice Dimitri’s proud smile. Until Dedue looked straight at him, and Dimitri was graced with a smile from Dedue. 

“More letters don’t necessarily prove that the whole thing isn’t a sham- who would write him a love letter?” Dimitri’s eyes were drawn to a pair of soldiers, who were gossiping right in front of him. About his vassal. Dimitri knew they were right when they said that two letters doesn’t prove anything- but that didn’t stop him from going up to them and speaking his mind. 

“Right in front of me, Dedue! You should have heard the things they said about you...disgusting.” Dimitri realized a bit too late, after telling Dedue all the details of the encounter in the greenhouse later that day, that telling Dedue about the horrible things that people said about him wasn’t going to make him feel any better. Dedue didn’t seem too fazed, however.   
“It’s fine, Your Highness, you didn’t have to say anything.” Dimitri felt himself getting angrier and angrier. “Has this taught you nothing?”  
“What?”  
“Don’t you realize now that people care about you?”  
“Do you realize that people care about you?”  
No one spoke for a while.  
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, please forgive-” Before he knew what he was doing, Dimitri pulled him into a hug. They stayed like that for a second, until Dedue gently nudged him off.  
“I’m sorry Dedue.” Dedue smiled a bit, and after checking to see if they were alone, kissed him on the forehead. Dimitri’s heart did a strange assortment of acrobatics after that.   
“People do care about you, Dedue.”  
“People care about you too.”  
“They do?”  
“I do.”  
“Well, I care about you as well, Dedue.”  
Dedue didn’t respond, he just smiled. Maybe he was getting more confidant. 

Dimitri kept writing the letters. Almost every single day. Even after Dedue realized how much the sender cared about him, Dimitri just kept doing it. Addiction was a bit of a stretch (kind of), but he was getting there, truthfully. He took great joy in writing those letters, but the amount of happiness that Dedue felt for the letters couldn’t compare to his. No one had to even ask if he had gotten a new letter anymore, there was always something different in the way he talked on the days that he got letters versus the days he didn’t get letters. Because of this, Dimitri tried his hardest to write the letters as much as possible, but because of this, Dimitri got even less sleep than he usually did. Dedue was constantly worried about him, but he always assured him he was fine.   
“Do you ever wonder who writes the letters, Dedue?” Sylvain asked one day. Dimitri was half asleep, and he jolted awake was Sylvain talked. Dedue looked at him, incredibly concerned.  
“Are you alright, Your Highness?” Dimitri looked up at him and mustered a smile.  
“Yes, Dedue. I think.”   
“Yeah, you okay, Dimitri?” Sylvain asked. “Are you up all night writing something? If so, you should take a break sometime.” Dimitri ignored the sly grin on his face and shook his head.  
“I’m fine, Sylvain.”  
“Anyways Dedue, do you have any idea who’s writing those letters?” Dedue frowned.  
“No. Well...”  
“What?” Sylvain leaned forward in his seat. “Who do you think it is?”  
Dedue glanced at Dimitri for a moment, but Dimitri barely noticed. He was so tired…  
“Well, it looked a bit like someone’s handwriting...nevermind, it can’t be…”  
“Do you want to know who is writing those letters, Dedue?”  
“No, it’s their business. If they don’t want me to know, I don’t need to know.”  
Dimitri fainted a few seconds later.

Dedue fussed over Dimitri, though Dimitri assured him that he should go to class and leave him to the doctors. He finally relented and left, which made the room look rather big. Dimitri wasn’t supposed to be working, or writing, he was supposed to be resting. But seeing Dedue look so sad…  
Dimitri picked up a pen.

He didn’t know what time it was. He was still so tired...but Dedue was more upset than usual, that day. Maybe this would make him feel better…  
If there’s one thing Dimitri cares about other than revenge, it’s his friends.   
He barely made it to the door before practically falling on his face. Dedue must have heard it, he came running out...he must have seen the letter...what would he think of him now?  
Dimitri lost consciousness again.

“Your Highness? Y-Your Highness?” Dimitri woke up in his bed.   
“Dedue?”  
“Sleep, please. You need to rest.” Dimitri looked around and saw a few healers next to him.   
“Dedue, I can explain-”  
“You don’t need to explain anything. It’s okay. Please, rest.”  
Dedue was sitting next to the bed...and he was...holding the letter. The healers talked to Dedue for a minute before leaving them to their own devices.   
“D-Did you read it?” Dimitri was astonished that he didn’t immediately lose his voice out of embarrassment.   
“Yes, I did. Please rest-”  
“Did you like it?” Dimitri asked, slightly more confident. Dedue didn’t seem too upset.  
He didn’t say anything, and for a second, Dimitri was scared.  
“It was my favorite one.” Dedue was smiling. Because of him. Dimitri smiled too.   
“Good.”  
He drifted off into a dreamless sleep. No nightmares, no dreams. Just...quiet.   
Dedue kissed his forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> IM BACK FROM THE DEAD GUYS


End file.
